Covini's six wheeled sportscar

Covini is a name which is not well known in automotive circles outside of Italy - that's almost certain to change thanks to the small company's latest design - a six wheel sports car along similar engineering lines to the famous Tyrrell P34 Formula One racing car of the mid-seventies. The six wheeled design offers many advantages over a conventional design as it offers more traction for cornering and braking and minimises the risks associated with tyre punctures and aquaplaning. The P34 experienced a host of development issues which technology has since solved. Covini's car certainly looks the business - in the go-department it is powered by an Audi 4.2 litre V8 motor (283.4 kw / 380 bhp @ 6400 rpm) which powers it to a top speed of 300 kmh.

The Tyrell P34

The Tyrrell P34 is without doubt the most recognisable car in the history of world motor sport - it had a few brief moments of glory and was gone thanks to a key tyre manufacturer changing allegiances. In recent years the advent of the FIA Thoroughbred Grand Prix World Championship, the distinctive Derek Gardner designed P34 has once again greeted the chequered flag, and on a much more regular basis.

The only six wheeler ever to start (much less win) a Grand Prix, the P34 was retired from action largely due to the lack of a suitable tyre partner.

The exact circumstance of Goodyear's split with Tyrrell might never be known, but Formula 1 is an expensive exercise for tyre manufacturers at the best of times and the need to develop an entirely different tyre just for the P34 did not seem to make economic sense when it either doubled the entire development budget, or halved the effectiveness of the development for the company's conventional formula one tyres. Though the tyre war was not nearly as fierce three decades ago in F1, it still saw tyre manufacturers take hundreds of tyre compound and carcass variations to each Grand Prix. And there was little upside for Goodyear - it was unlikely that six wheel cars would ever reach mass numbers.

While Goodyear was not convinced, Tyrrell's efforts had impressed some of the other teams sufficiently to create their own versions of the four wheel front end. McLaren and March both had complete six-wheel cars ready to go when Tyrrell pulled the plug on the six wheeled development, so at least some serious brains thought the idea had merit.

That the car won Grands Prix (with a famous 1-2 finish in Sweden in 1976) bears testimony to the design - the decision by GoodYear to turn its attention to another tyre development opportunity may have prematurely killed a fundamentally sound engineering solution.

Idea is three decades in incubation

Covini conceived the original idea for his car in 1974 and made provision in his design for 10 inches front wheels because there were no low profile tyres available at the time. The project was ditched in favour of another design endeavour (the Soleado prototype), and lay dormant until the 80s when hydro-pneumatic suspension for the four front wheels was devised to optimise weight distribution under various loading conditions. High development costs and other contingencies forced the project to be delayed again. As the emphasis in road going automotive design shifted to passive and active safety during the nineties, Covini again began work on the six-wheeler and this time around, he found the backing required from larger companies to finance its development.

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